The Universe rolls out the beta version of a redesigned website on Wednesday, universe.byu.edu, offering a move visual look and additional features.
The new site will include a broader range of content to capture the interests of students, alumni and faculty and staff. Core content from the print journalism and broadcast news labs will be expanded to broaden the site’s reach.
Kristina Smith, the web content manager, said that one of the main goals of the new layout was to increase foot traffic to The Universe website, where students can use the tools and read up on the latest articles.
Updates are also being designed to more fully exploit The Universe’s mobile apps, which are available both for both Android and Apple platforms. Eric Bowden, The Universe’s mobile app developer, is coordinating mobile app improvements with updates to the website. New features on the mobile app will give users access to top news stories, deals offered by businesses near campus, access to live campus webcams, a calendar of campus events and direct feeds from the Police Beat.
“We are just trying to re-brand the Daily Universe image,” Smith said. “We are making the layout more user friendly and visually appealing. We want to design it in a way that students will want to make it a part of their everyday life.”
Steve Fidel, director of The Universe, said the news lab’s legacy, The Daily Universe, continues with an increasingly diverse portfolio of news outlets: The website, mobile apps, weekly print edition and content links and bulletins distributed through social media like Facebook and Twitter.
The Universe will still be BYU’s closest news source, whether it is in print, online or mobile.
“The Universe lets faculty and staff know what is happening among the student body outside of the classroom. The Universe features accomplishments unique to the BYU campus so students can take pride in what is happening at the university.”
Bobby Swingler, the webmaster and lead programmer of the new Universe website, put his creative juices to work and collaborated with Fidel to come up with new features and tools that will help make the website more interactive and presentable.
“One new feature on the website is the ‘Student Showcase’ tool,” Swingler said. “It is a platform where artists, musicians, scientists, math students, dancers and anyone here on campus that has something worth bragging about can share. If you have done something creative in which you can share in terms of a video, image or audio file, it can be posted here on the website for everyone to see. There is a lot of talent at BYU, and I think it will be fun to share with others.”
Other new features include “Futures” and “A day at BYU.”
“Futures” will feature alumni who share their success stories after graduating from BYU. It gives current students examples to look up to in terms of what to do after they leave BYU. The “A day in the life of BYU” feature will invite students, faculty, staff — the entire BYU community — to participate in photography-driven projects that capture BYU life during a 24-hour period.
“The new website is highly interactive,” Swingler said. “I think it is something every BYU student, past and present, will find themselves using. It’s an invitation to alumni to share their stories about BYU, and it’s an invitation for everyone who wants to collaborate with other students.”
Smith said she wants to make the most of the website by capitalizing on the students’ interests. With the students’, alumni’s and faculty’s interests in mind, Swingler wanted to take the website’s functionality to a higher level with the new features and design. This is fitting because in today’s culture everything can be found online.
“The new site design is stronger visually and helps carry the message that The Universe draws on its legacy as The Daily Universe to become The Digital Universe,” Fidel said. “We will be carrying all of the student-generated news on campus, including broadcast stories from ElevenNEWS. The change in design also accompanies the redesign of The Universe’s mobile app.”
The beta website of The Universe is scheduled to launch on Wednesday, Oct. 16 for the BYU community to get acquainted with. The current Universe website will run parallel with the beta one for a week before the new website takes over completely.
